CHARTER ESTABLISHING THE EUROPEANS ALCOHOL AND HEALTH FORUM

I praktiken innebär forumet en skriftlig förpliktelse att vidta åtgärder: att lägga fram en handlingsplan, formulera konkreta mål, följa upp arbetet och utvärdera resultaten. Arbetet kommer att offentliggöras på DG-Sancos (generaldirektoratet för hälsa och konsumentskydd) webbplats. Man kommer också att tillsätta olika expert- och arbetsgrupper.

Alkohol- och hälsoforumet är ett konkret resultatet av EU-strategin om att begränsa alkoholskadorna som presenterades av kommissionen i oktober 2006. Dess struktur och uppgifter diskuteras både av NGO:erna och industrin.

Charter establishing the European Alcohol and Helath Forum

European Commission, businesses and NGO's create Forum to battle alcohol-related harm

Forumets 75 förpliktelser

I december 2007 publicerade forumet 75 förpliktelser för att minska alkoholrelaterade skador, främja en ansvarsfull alkoholkonsumtion och kuva försäljningen av alkohol till minderåriga personer.De 75 förpliktelserna gäller bland annat utbildning och information som ska hjälpa att skapa ansvarsfulla mönster när det gäller alkoholkonsumtion. Förpliktelserna gäller också reklam och marknadsföring av alkohol samt hur man ska minska ungdomars tillgång till alkohol.

En överblick av förpliktelserna kan du läsa här.

Overwiew of commitments

Alkoholstrategin var uppe i EU:s ministerråd

Europeiska unionens råd för sysselsättning, socialpolitik, hälsa och konsumentfrågor sammanträdde 30.11-1.12.2006 i Bryssel under ledning av de finländska ministrarna på dessa områden. Rådet dryftade gemenskapens folkhälsoprogram och hade som mål att nå en politisk överenskommelse om programmet. Rådet höll också en policy debate om EU:s alkoholstrategi och antog sedan vissa slutsatser beträffande densamma.

Rådet antog följande slutsatser beträffande kommissionens strategi för att minska alkoholrelaterade skador:

Rådet uppmärksammande att alla EU-länder år 2005 antagit WHO:s resolution "Framework for alcohol policy in the WHO Europe Region" och att länderna understödde antagandet av en resolution om alkoholrelaterade folkhälsoskador under den 58:e världshälsoförsamlingen.

Man framförde också vikten av att man beaktar hälsoeffekter av beslutsfattande över alla olika policyområden. Ministrarna ville också understryka att EG-domstolen i olika repriser fastslagit att folkhälsan rankas högre än de intressen som skyddas av artikel 30 i EU fördraget, och att det är upp till det enskilda medlemslandet att inom ramen för fördraget bestämma vilken grad av hälsoprevention man vill sträva efter i den nationella politiken och lagstiftningen.

"...harmful and hazardous consumption of alcohol in the population is a major risk factor for public health and safety, a contributory factor in a range of health conditions including injuries, and associated with social harm such as domestic abuse, street disorder, violence, and social exclusion", står det vidare i rådets konklusioner (preliminär version)

Rådet betonar den enorma effekt som alkoholrelaterade skador har på tredje part, t.ex. ofödda foster, familjemedlemmar, tredje parts dödsfall och trafikolyckor, samt i förlorade arbetsinsatser.
Alkoholrelaterade skador bidrar också till ojämlikhet i fråga om hälsa mellan olika grupper av medborgare, men också i arten av alkoholrelaterade skador mellan män och kvinnor och mellan olika medlemsländers befolkningar.

Ministrarna enades om att målet för alkoholrelaterade policys är att reducera alkoholrelaterade skador. Viktigt var ett tillägg om att "reduction of alcohol-related harm would promote growth and employment and strengthen European productivity and competitiveness".

Slutligen underströks de enskilda medlemsländernas kompetens att stärka nationell alkoholpolitik som lämpar sig för de nationella behoven och den nationella kontexten.

Till möteshandlingar och dokumentation från mötet: The 2767th session of the Council of the European Union - EMPLOYMENT, SOCIAL POLICY, HEALTH AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS

Pressrelease: Rådet för sysselsättning, socialpolitik, hälso- och konsumentfrågor

Bakgrundsdokumentet till Europeiska unionens råd för sysselsättning, socialpolitik och hälsa (30.11-1.12.06)

The use of alcohol in Europe

The EU is the heaviest drinking region of the world, although the 11 litres of pure alcohol drunk per adult each year is still a substantial fall from a recent peak of 15 litres in the mid-1970s. The last 40 years have also seen a harmonization in consumption levels in the EU15, where rises in central and northern Europe between 1960 and 1980, were met by a consistent fall in southern Europe. Average consumption in the EU10 is also closer to the EU15 than ever before, although substantial variation remains within the EU10. Most Europeans drink alcohol, but 55 million adults (15%) abstain; taking this and unrecorded consumption into account, the consumption per drinker reaches 15 litres per year. Abstinence appears to have decreased in northern Europe and stayed constant elsewhere, suggesting that abstinence and consumption levels move relatively independently.

Just under half of this alcohol is consumed in the form of beer (44%), with the rest divided between wine (34%) and spirits (23%). Within the EU15, northern and central parts drink mainly beer, while those in southern Europe drink mainly wine (although Spain may be an exception). This is a relatively new phenomenon, with a harmonization visible over the past 40 years in the EU15. Around 40% of drinking occasions in most of the EU15 are consumed with the afternoon/evening meal, although those in southern Europe are much more likely to drink with lunch than elsewhere. While the level of daily drinking also shows a north—south gradient, non-daily frequent consumption seems to be more common in central Europe, and there is evidence for a recent harmonization within the EU15.

Drinking to drunkenness varies across Europe, with fewer southern Europeans than others reporting getting drunk each month. This pattern is attenuated when ‘binge-drinking’, a measure of drinking beyond a certain number of drinks in a single occasion, is instead investigated, suggesting that there are systematic differences in either or both of people’s willingness to report being intoxicated or the length of a ‘single occasion’. The studies of binge-drinking also show occasional exceptions to the north-south pattern, in particular suggesting that Sweden has one of the lowest rates of binge-drinking in the EU15. Summing up across the EU15, adults report getting drunk 5 times per year on average but binge-drink 17 times. This is equivalent to 40m EU15 citizens ‘drinking too much’ monthly and 100m (1 in 3) binge-drinking at least once per month. Much fewer data are available for the EU10, but that which exists suggests that some of the wine-drinking is replaced by spirits, the frequency of drinking is lower, and the frequency of binge-drinking higher than in the EU15.

While 266 million adults drink alcohol up to 20g (women) or 40g (men) per day, over 58 million adults (15%) consume above this level, with 20 million of these (6%) drinking at over 40g (women) or 60g per day (men). Looking at addiction rather than drinking levels, we can also estimate that 23 million Europeans (5% of men, 1% of women) are dependent on alcohol in any one year. In every culture ever studied, men are more likely than women to drink at all and to drink more when they do, with the gap greater for riskier behaviour. It is hard to find evidence that this gender gap has decreased for most aspects of drinking, although the gender gap in drunkenness is lowest in young adults. Although many women give up alcohol when pregnant, a significant number (25%-50%) continue to drink, and some continue to drink to harmful levels. Patterns in drinking behaviour can also be seen for socio-economic status (SES), where those with lower SES are less likely to drink alcohol at all. Despite a complex picture for some aspects of drinking (with some measures showing opposite trends for men and women), getting drunk and becoming dependent on alcohol are both more likely among drinkers of lower SES.

Nearly all 15-16 year old students (>90%) have drunk alcohol at some point in their life, on average beginning to drink at 12½ years of age, and getting drunk for the first time at 14 years. The most common place for them to have drunk alcohol is at their own or someone else’s home, although sizeable numbers also drink in outdoor public spaces and bars. The average amount drunk on a single occasion by 15-16 year olds is over 60g of alcohol, and reaches nearly 40g even in the lower-consuming (for 15-16 year olds) south of Europe. Over 1 in 8 (13%) of 15-16 year olds have been drunk more than 20 times in their life, and more than 1 in 6 (18%) have ‘binged’ (5+ drinks on a single occasion) three or more times in the last month. Although two countries saw more drunkenness on some measures in girls than boys for the first time in 2003, boys continue to drink more and get drunk more often than girls, with little reduction in the absolute gap between them overall.

Most countries show a rise in binge-drinking for boys from 1995/9 to 2003, and nearly all countries show this for girls (similar results are found for non-ESPAD countries using other data). This is due to a rise in binge-drinking and drunkenness across most of the EU 1995-9, followed by a much more ambivalent trend since (1999-2003). A narrowed gap between the EU10 and EU15 is also visible for binge-drinking and drunkenness, due to both the size of the changes and a continued rise in parts of the EU10, particularly for girls, and accompanied by rises in other aspects of consumption (e.g. last occasion consumption). Trends are more ambivalent for many other aspects of drinking, however, such as frequency of drinking and estimated total consumption. While there is, therefore, no evidence that young people’s use of alcohol has increased in the last decade, it does appear that there is a trend towards increased risky use, particularly in the EU10.

Source: "Alcohol in Europe" (2006)